Fan Bingbing

Fan Bingbing (, born 16 September 1981 in Yantai) is a Chinese actress. From 2013 to 2017, she was included as the highest-paid celebrity in the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list after ranking in the top 10 every year since 2006. She appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in 2017.

Fan gained recognition for her role in the costume drama My Fair Princess (1998–1999). Her breakthrough came with Feng Xiaogang's film Cell Phone (2003), which was China's highest-grossing film of the year and earned her the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress. She frequently collaborated with Li Yu, who directed Fan vehicles such as Lost in Beijing (2007), Buddha Mountain (2011) and Double Xposure (2012). She reunited with Feng in I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016), for which she won the Silver Shell for Best Actress at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, as well as the Asian Film Award for Best Actress. She is also known for the TV series Jintai-pan (2009) and The Empress of China (2014), both of which she produced and starred in.

Fan has ventured into international productions such as X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Skiptrace (2016) and The 355 (2022). She shifted her focus to the international market after the 2018 tax evasion scandal, during which she disappeared for three months and was fined CN¥883 million (US$127 million), a sum reportedly greater than her net worth.

Early life
Fan was born and raised in Yantai. Her father, Fan Tao, is a singer while her mother, Zhang Chuanmei, is an actress. She graduated from the Shanghai Xie Jin-Hengtong School of Arts.

Fan has a younger brother Fan Chengcheng, who is a member of boy group Nine Percent and NEXT.

1996–2006: Early roles and Cell Phone
Fan debuted in the television series Powerful Woman and played minor roles for two years, before gaining recognition in 1999 for her supporting role as Jin Suo in the first two seasons of the Chinese television series My Fair Princess, adapted from the novel by Taiwanese writer Chiung Yao. Fan was recommended by Hong Kong actress Leanne Liu to join the cast.

In 2003, she starred in Cell Phone, which became China's highest-grossing film of the year and earned her the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress. Fan signed an eight-year contract with Chiung Yao's company, which produced My Fair Princess. However, as the company had yet to establish any branches in mainland China, many mainland Chinese television advertising firms had to make calls to Taiwan for negotiations, resulting in a waste of time and effort. When Fan and her mother tried to contract, Chiung Yao's company asked for CN¥1 million in compensation; eventually the court ordered Fan to pay CN¥200,000 because the contract was illegal due to her age.

Fan appeared in The Lion Roars (2002), The Twins Effect II (2004), A Chinese Tall Story (2005), and A Battle of Wits (2006). She received a Golden Bauhinia Awards nomination for her role in the Chinese-South-Korean-Japanese epic film A Battle of Wits. In 2006, Forbes China awarded her the Star of the Year.

2007–2012: Rise to prominence
She has starred in many Chinese films, most notably Lost in Beijing (2007), Buddha Mountain (2011), Double Xposure (2012) and I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016), and has received awards from the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, Tokyo International Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Asian Film Awards and Golden Rooster Awards. She has participated in many foreign-language films, such as the French film Stretch (2011), the Korean film My Way (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), in which she portrayed Blink, and the Hong Kong-Chinese-American film Skiptrace (2015), for which she won the Golden Screen Award for Best Actress. Fan left Huayi Brothers in February 2007 and started her own studio, Fan Bingbing Studio. She starred in eight films in 2007, winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 44th Golden Horse Awards for her role in The Matrimony. That year, her studio made its first television production, Rouge Snow (2008), adapted from the novel of the same name. Fan played the starring role in the production, portraying a poor girl who fights for freedom against fate after being sold to a wealthy and influential clan. In the same year, Fan starred in crime drama film Shinjuku Incident and was praised by critics for her performance. Fan featured in historical action film Bodyguards and Assassins, which earned her a nomination for the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards.

In 2010, Fan starred in Chen Kaige's historical epic, Sacrifice. Fan said that she chose the role as she was moved by Princess Zhuang Ji's great courage and a very fierce maternal love. On 24 October, Buddha Mountain starring Fan premiered at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival, and earned her the Best Actress Award. In April 2010, Fan was ranked first on the "50 Most Beautiful People in China" list by the newspaper Beijing News. In 2011, Fan starred in the martial arts film Shaolin alongside Andy Lau and Jackie Chan and The Founding of a Party, which was released to mark the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. In May, she appeared at the 64th Cannes Film Festival to promote My Way together with director Kang Je-gyu and actors Jang Dong-gun and Joe Odagiri. In October, she became a member of the International Competition Jury of 24th Tokyo International Film Festival.

For the first half of 2012, Fan attended many fashion shows in Paris. On 16 May, she attended the opening ceremony of the 65th Cannes Film Festival as the only East Asian global spokesperson on behalf of L'Oréal Paris. Forbes ranked Fan third on the 2012 Forbes China Celebrity 100 List based on her success in that year. In the film Double Xposure, which was released in China on 29 September, she portrays a girl who, after suffering trauma during childhood, experiences visual hallucinations after witnessing her father kill her mother. Most film critics praised to Fan's performance, and she won the Huading Awards for Best Actress. The film was a financial success, with a domestic gross of more than CN¥100 million, which broke the box office record for a domestic art film in China. On 12 December, Fan appeared in Lost in Thailand, in which she did an unpaid cameo so as to "help" her first-time filmmaker friend, Xu Zheng. The film broke the box office record for Chinese films in China to become one of the highest-grossing Chinese films of all time.

2013–present: International ventures and established actress
In 2013, Fan appeared as Dr. Wu's assistant, Wu Jiaqi, in the mainland Chinese version of Iron Man 3, which was released on 1 May. The same year, she starred alongside Aarif Rahman in the romantic comedy One Night Surprise, which aired on Chinese Valentine's Day. The low-budget film became a commercial success and received positive reviews. On 9 December 2013, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group's B2C business Taobao announced that Fan topped the list of the most valuable celebrities for boosting online business and said that Fan influenced approximately US$74 million in sales on its ecommerce website. On 22 December, Fan received the Best Actress Award and the Hottest Figure Award at the Baidu Hot Ceremony. In 2014, Fan portrayed the mutant Blink (Clarice Ferguson) in the American superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Past. She also announced that she has a four-film contract with 20th Century Fox, yet she has not appeared in another X-Men film since. The film was released globally and resulted in increased international fame and recognition for Fan. On 31 May, Barbie announced the launch of the Fan Bingbing Celebrity Specialty doll in Shanghai. Louis Vuitton also chose Fan as the first Asian actress to be provided with a specially tailored dress for their red carpet.

In the series The Empress of China, Fan portrays the titular character Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history. The 82-episode TV series was broadcast on Hunan Television from 21 December 2014 to 5 February 2015, and recorded the highest ratings for the year. The same year, she starred in wuxia fantasy film The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom. In 2015, Fan joined the China Central Television (CCTV) variety show as a judge in Amazing Chinese and as a contestant in the reality television show Challenger's Alliance. Fan won the Best Actress award at the 1st Berlin Chinese Film Festival for her role in the film. She was ranked fourth on Forbes World's Highest-Paid Actresses list for 2015.

In 2016, Fan featured in the action comedy Skiptrace alongside Jackie Chan and American actor Johnny Knoxville, which won her the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1st Golden Screen Awards. Fan then starred in Guo Jingming's L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties. The film, which was released on 30 September, is China's first computer-animated motion film. Fan won the Silver Shell for Best Actress at the 64th San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress for her performance in I Am Not Madame Bovary directed by Feng Xiaogang.

Fan was honored at the 2017 Time 100 Gala in Manhattan, recognized on Time magazine's list of the one-hundred most influential people of 2017. In April 2017, Fan was announced to serve as a jury member at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. The same year, she starred in Sky Hunter, China's first aerial warfare film. She also starred in the 2017 French film The Lady in the Portrait (Le Portrait interdit), co-starring Melvil Poupaud. In June 2017, Fan was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 2018, Fan was cast in Cao Baoping's crime drama film The Perfect Blue. In the same year, she was cast in the spy-thriller film The 355, alongside Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong'o, Diane Kruger, Sebastian Stan and Édgar Ramírez; it was released in January 2022. Fan attended the IQIYI Ninth Anniversary Gala in Beijing on 22 April 2019. Just 4 days later, she released her own brand Fan Beauty Secret first moisturizing mask. Fan was in attendance at the Shanghai Beauty Summit on 12 July and the 12th China Cosmetic Summit on 22 July.

The tax incident has had some noticeable impact on Fan's livelihood; while many of her business endorsements remain, her film and television works could not be released in mainland China, the role Fan played in L.O.R.D 2 was modified by CG, and The Legend of Ba Qing (巴清传), a drama with Fan in a star role, which was shelved after completion.

Following the incident, Fan has mainly focused on the management of her beauty brand Fan Beauty Secret. She has since been on the covers of Grazia (Korea, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, International), L'Officiel (Italy, India, Liechenstein, Russia, Singapore), Vogue (Czechoslovakia, Singapore), Wonderland (China, UK), Marie Claire (Malaysia), Harper's Bazaar (Serbia), T (Singapore), Numéro (Netherlands), Schön! and more. Along with this in 2023 she walked on the Mugler runway.

In 2022, she starred in two films that were released in North America, The 355 and The King's Daughter. Both films landed her a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress. She also made a surprise appearance in the Korean TV series Insider. In 2023, she starred in Green Night (绿夜), which premiered at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section. In September 2023, she served as a jury member at the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Public image and endorsements
On 13 May 2010, Fan wore a "Dragon Robe" on the red carpet of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. The dress, co-designed by Chinese designer Laurence Hsu and Fan herself, features two leaping dragons and crashing waves on the hem, in the bright yellow color that was exclusively used by emperors in ancient China. The dress was collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on 12 March 2012. Laurence Hsu announced that the dress shown at the museum is a modified version of the original, which was bought by Madame Tussauds.

On 11 May 2011, Fan wore a crane dress on the red carpet at the opening ceremony of the 64th Cannes Film Festival.

On the red carpet of the opening ceremony of the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Fan wore an elegant pale strapless gown designed by her friend Christopher Bu, decorated with bright floral designs and stories about the Four Beauties of ancient China. Inspired by a porcelain vase, the ancient vibe of her dress was complemented by her hairstyle, which made her look like a young maiden in the Tang dynasty.

Due to these appearances in Cannes, Fan has attracted notable media attention. In recent years, Fan received various invitations from fashion brands such as Valentino, Giorgio Armani S.p.A., Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A., Atelier Versace, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton, to attend fashion shows in Paris, Beijing and Shanghai. On 3 July 2012, she closed the Stéphane Rolland's Haute Couture show in Paris, and was featured in the fashion show's finale. On July 31, 2012, she was ranked number nine on Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed list 2012. On 19 September, she was honoured with the Personal Style Award by Elle (USA Edition). On December 2, 2012, she became the Asian ambassador of Louis Vuitton "Epi Alma" series of handbags. On 5 December, she was awarded "The Most Beautiful Woman of the Year" by the magazine Esquire (China Edition).

Fan topped the 2013 Forbes China Celebrity 100 List. She became the first Asian celebrity ambassador for the Champagne House Moët & Chandon, and also the brand ambassador for Chopard. On May 18, 2013, she was honoured as the International Artist of the Year in Cannes by The Hollywood Reporter. Fan joined the opening ceremony of 2013 Cannes Film Festival premiere, wearing a custom Louis Vuitton gown, and that was the first time the French fashion house had created a gown especially for an Asian actress. In April 2013, Fan became the Greater Chinese face of Louis Vuitton's "Chic on the bridge" advertising campaign, promoting the classic "Alma" handbag launched in 1934, shot by American fashion photographer Steven Klein. In December 2013, Fan starred as the global face of the Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2014 collection, which marked Marc Jacobs's final advertising campaign for the brand, featuring alongside Catherine Deneuve, Sofia Coppola, Gisele Bündchen, Caroline de Maigret and Edie Campbell. In August 2020, French luxury beauty house Guerlain announced that Fan as the brand's global spokesperson.

Fan was ranked on Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed list 2015 and 2016. Fan was named global ambassador of several brands such as ReFa Beauty Care Tools, De Beers, King Power, and Montblanc.

On July 3, 2023, Fan closed the Georges Hobeika's Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2023 show at Paris Haute Couture Week. On October 2, 2023, Fan closed the closed out the catwalk for the Mugler's Spring/Summer 2024 womenswear show.

In April 2024, Fan was invited as a special guest at the Songkran Festival in Thailand.

On 27 May 2024, it was announced that Fan was appointed as Malacca's tourism ambassador, she toured the Malaysian state from 14 June till 16 June.

Personal life
On 29 May 2015, it was announced on Li Chen's social media that he and Fan Bingbing were dating. On 16 September 2017, the couple got engaged after he proposed to Fan at her birthday party. The couple announced their separation on 27 June 2019.

Since August 2010, Fan has helped more than 340 children with congenital heart disease receive medical treatment in Beijing and Shanghai.

Tax evasion
On 28 May 2018, TV anchor Cui Yongyuan leaked a redacted contract via social media that disclosed Fan being paid CN¥10 million for her four days of work on the then-upcoming Feng Xiaogang film Cell Phone 2. The following day, Cui published a second redacted contract showing an amount of CN¥50 million for the same job, suggesting that the smaller contract was intended for reporting to tax authorities to avoid being taxed for her full compensation of CN¥60 million. This disclosure prompted Jiangsu Provincial and Wuxi City tax authorities to investigate a suspected case of tax evasion. Fan's studio issued a statement denying that she had ever signed separate contracts for a single job, and stated that they would cooperate fully with authorities in the investigation and would address public concerns.

Questions, concerns, and rumors about Fan's whereabouts grew when she was not seen after a last public appearance on 1 July 2018, and a lack of activity on social media after 23 July. As Fan was presumed missing, unconfirmed rumours suggested that Fan had been arrested. In August 2018, Fan's manager Jersey Chong stated via social media that Fan was never arrested. Fan broke her public silence on 3 October 2018 with a statement on social media, apologizing to the public for tax evasion after the Chinese authorities ordered her and her companies to pay about CN¥883 million (US$127.4 million) in taxes and penalties to avoid criminal prosecution.